Haibike’s 2019 Flyon e-bike range packs beauty and brawn

Built around carbon frames with integrated, air-cooled Yamaha batteries, as well as the high-torque 120-Nm TQ 120S mid-drive motor, Haibike's 2019 Flyon range features hidden wiring, beautiful displays and one monster of a headlight. They're expensive, but boy are they pretty.

The German company's 2018 Xduro and Sduro bikes looked pretty tight, but their clip-on batteries gave them a bit of a "we made a bike and then converted it to an e-bike" sort of feel. The same cannot be said for the completely revised 2019 Flyon range, which have all been built from the ground up as fully integrated mid-drive pedelecs.

The frames are full carbon units, in hardtail and full suspension variants, with twin tail lights built into the rear triangle. The 630-Wh, 48-volt BMZ batteries are now fully integrated into the downtube, cooled through honeycomb air intakes in the headstock and removable through a lockable mechanism. All electrics, mechanicals and hydraulics now run through the frame, giving the bikes a very nice clean look.

The heart of the matter is the motor, and Haibike has decided torque is king. All Flyon bikes will run the TQ 120S mid-drive motor, which makes 120 Nm (88 lb-ft) of torque on its highest setting – far more than any of the other major mid-drive motors on the market.

Mind you, it's a mid-drive, and it'll be power-limited per whatever market it goes to. More torque will give you access to a wider range of gears for a given hill ascent, but it's not going to end up doing more work per se than a less torquey motor if they're both rated to a particular wattage.

From what we can tell on the TQ website, it seems these motors will come in 250-, 500- and 920-watt configurations from the factory. But these may simply be software limitations to fit market regulations, which makes us suspect there might be some way to uncork the lower-powered variants if you're the kind of devious person who'd think of such a thing.

The motors will be protected with a small skidplate, which prevents damage if you whack it on rocks, as well as keeping dirt and mud out of it when you're riding off-road.

The other real star of the Flyon range is the Skybeamer LED headlight, which offers 150, 300 or 5,000 lumens of egg-cooking brightness, with manual or automatic brightness levels including low and high beams to prevent you from blinding oncoming bikes on the trails.

There are 10 models in the new Flyon range, covering enduro, mountain, trail and adventure style riding. Prices range from €5,000 to €9,000 (US$5,860 to $10,550) depending on levels of specification. These are not cheap bikes, but, like the Stromer bikes, they cater to a growing premium segment in the market that seems to want outstanding integration and a very clean design.